Amy Lanee Raymond

Amy was beautiful, brilliant and beloved.

An irreplaceable master of her craft in an indispensable industry serving a community she loved, Amy was a peerless giant of local journalism at The Oklahoman for more than 20 years. Although her stature was small and her voice gentle, her prodigious talents reverberated at full volume in every room, filling every space with her intelligence and skill, and warming every heart with her compassion, wit and spirit.

Amy was born March 16, 1976, in Denver. Her parents, Ann I. (Schmidt) and William L. Greene, lovingly guided her through childhood in Wichita, Kan., as Amy pushed each envelope and expanded all horizons. She made a lasting and personal impression on friends, parents and teachers, always positive except perhaps with haphazard driving. Denial doesn't refute all the checked curbs, or the fender-bender on her first solo drive to school. Amy tenaciously pursued justice by championing diverse causes, from equal rights and anti-racism to vegetarianism and HIV prevention. She appeared on every honor roll and earned innumerable scholarship offers on her way to graduating from Wichita South High School a year early in 1993.

As she worked towards graduation in 1997 from Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond with a degree in biology, she burnished a reputation as a future journalism star by capping her student media career as editor of The Talon News. She flourished as a young professional at The Oklahoman and quickly ascended the newsroom's ladder, rising from copy editor and page designer to Night News Editor — the straw stirring every drink, deftly spotting and removing flies from other people's ointment, and properly tying up all the loose ends, earning top awards along the way. The human nexus of technology, design and reporting, she balanced her immense practical power over people and products with the warmth and tenderness of a trusted confidant. She was great at it, and she loved it.

What was first a workplace friendship soon blossomed into a full-blown, life-long love story between Amy and her husband, Ken. Married in 2004, the couple enjoyed an eternal love, uniquely suited to each other in a way friends and family recognized as uncommon and adorable. They were bonded by shared passions, literature, intellectual expression and insatiable mutual desire, bringing out the fullest expressions of each other's personalities. They raised, loved and occasionally simply managed the existence of their neurotic dogs. Together, they fit.

Amy is survived by Ken, Ann, William, sister Ange Liebst, brother-in-law Brandon Liebst, and dogs Apple and Dash.

Friends and family are gathering 6-8 p.m. Saturday, May 15, at Stitch Cafe, 835 W Sheridan Ave. Suite 100 in Oklahoma City, to celebrate and remember Amy. In lieu of flowers, Amy's family requests donations be made in her memory to the Oklahoma Humane Society (okhumane.org, 7500 N Western Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73116) or the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (aafa.org, P.O. Box 424053, Washington, DC 20042).